Finally - my 750 Gallon is set up, picture heavy.
- Thread starter bonesb66
- Start date
Bones, What lighting is that you are using in the photos ont he first page? love the colour its giving to the cichla
Sam - To start with i'm using an Allpondsolutions 5' T5 unit, i picked it up second hand for around £100 and used it on my 210 gallon tank before this one and so it did the trick.
As with most hobbyists there is always changes throughout keeping a tank.
I couldn't quite get the water clear and so i added a UV to it, looking back a year on this UV is not sufficient and so i'm going to replace it with a more serious unit soon.
I dunked a load of mature media out my canisters when i first made the change over but they were due a clean and so i have lots of muck and grime sitting in the bottom of my sump which if disturbed clouds the tank - i'm still scratching my head wondering how to get it out.
In terms of mechanical, filter socks were too high maintenance, i eventually found jap matting which i found very good and long lasting, i tried to better it recently and add in some fine floss after 2 layers of matting but i found it clogging the first chamber of the sump and i was worried of it flooding the room so i've since removed it.
Clarity is alright though all in all.
I've taken the lighting away and gone with 4x 4' LED units which do the whole sun rise/sun set thing which is nice.
Heating i'm stilling running 5x 300 watt heaters, they are cheap things and 1 year on i think some of them have packed up and the thermastat has gone meaning they stick on, during winter this is fine as it's difficult to keep it fully warm and requires all 5 heaters, now we're into summer (sort of) i'm down to 2 heaters and i have my HMA drip quite high.
I have dreadful algae when the sun is out, i'm going to get another black acrylic panel for the far end near the window as that is always difficult to maintain due to access (you can see in below video)
Stock has changed a little now i have the space to house more serious fish, i will outline below.
i've changed one of the 6,000 litre per hour pumps for a 20,000 litre per hour pump - total is now 28,000 litres per hour, unfortunately the tank builder supplied me with 25mm pipe and so i think this is actually slowing the flow down from the pumps.
Since having this done nearly 1 year ago i've still not covered all the horrible brick work underneath - i am now building a fish house though and whilst i'm in the mode will be finally finishing this off.
The stock is;
2 Temensis 24" & 26"
5 Monoculus 15" - 18"
3 Kelberi 12" - 15"
1 Azul 12"
1 Aimara 20"
1 Red Tail Giant Gourami (a friends) 16"
1 Silver Arowana 18"
2 Ripsaw Catfish 24" & 33"
1 Asian Arowana (I'm told it's a blue base cross back but he doesn't look it to me) 26"
2 Tigrinus Catfish 14" & 20" (These live in the sump due to being swallowed by peacock bass or savaged by Aimara and await their new home in the fish house)
2 Henlei rays 12" & 15" (Both Female)
I plan on moving the smaller peacock bass into a new tank along with both Tigrinus, i'll possibly move the giant gourami and silver arowana out also, will likely add a male Henlei to the collection also.
Here is how it looks now, sorry the quality isn't great i really would have expected better from an Iphone 5.
[video=youtube;lrdPM3AuQ7Y]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrdPM3AuQ7Y[/video]
As with most hobbyists there is always changes throughout keeping a tank.
I couldn't quite get the water clear and so i added a UV to it, looking back a year on this UV is not sufficient and so i'm going to replace it with a more serious unit soon.
I dunked a load of mature media out my canisters when i first made the change over but they were due a clean and so i have lots of muck and grime sitting in the bottom of my sump which if disturbed clouds the tank - i'm still scratching my head wondering how to get it out.
In terms of mechanical, filter socks were too high maintenance, i eventually found jap matting which i found very good and long lasting, i tried to better it recently and add in some fine floss after 2 layers of matting but i found it clogging the first chamber of the sump and i was worried of it flooding the room so i've since removed it.
Clarity is alright though all in all.
I've taken the lighting away and gone with 4x 4' LED units which do the whole sun rise/sun set thing which is nice.
Heating i'm stilling running 5x 300 watt heaters, they are cheap things and 1 year on i think some of them have packed up and the thermastat has gone meaning they stick on, during winter this is fine as it's difficult to keep it fully warm and requires all 5 heaters, now we're into summer (sort of) i'm down to 2 heaters and i have my HMA drip quite high.
I have dreadful algae when the sun is out, i'm going to get another black acrylic panel for the far end near the window as that is always difficult to maintain due to access (you can see in below video)
Stock has changed a little now i have the space to house more serious fish, i will outline below.
i've changed one of the 6,000 litre per hour pumps for a 20,000 litre per hour pump - total is now 28,000 litres per hour, unfortunately the tank builder supplied me with 25mm pipe and so i think this is actually slowing the flow down from the pumps.
Since having this done nearly 1 year ago i've still not covered all the horrible brick work underneath - i am now building a fish house though and whilst i'm in the mode will be finally finishing this off.
The stock is;
2 Temensis 24" & 26"
5 Monoculus 15" - 18"
3 Kelberi 12" - 15"
1 Azul 12"
1 Aimara 20"
1 Red Tail Giant Gourami (a friends) 16"
1 Silver Arowana 18"
2 Ripsaw Catfish 24" & 33"
1 Asian Arowana (I'm told it's a blue base cross back but he doesn't look it to me) 26"
2 Tigrinus Catfish 14" & 20" (These live in the sump due to being swallowed by peacock bass or savaged by Aimara and await their new home in the fish house)
2 Henlei rays 12" & 15" (Both Female)
I plan on moving the smaller peacock bass into a new tank along with both Tigrinus, i'll possibly move the giant gourami and silver arowana out also, will likely add a male Henlei to the collection also.
Here is how it looks now, sorry the quality isn't great i really would have expected better from an Iphone 5.
[video=youtube;lrdPM3AuQ7Y]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrdPM3AuQ7Y[/video]
I'd love to see some pics of the sump with the jap mat in it, that's the exact same reason I've not gone for filter socks with my build. How often do you clean the matting? How does it compare in terms of fineness to Poret foam?
